Fruitful Labor and A Hierarchal Visit at St. Philip Church + Souderton, PA

Bp THOMAS Prays over Simeon Nicholas BushelliRecently, we had a blessed pastoral visit from Bishop THOMAS. A unique aspect of this visit was that on Saturday Morning, Sayedna led about 50 of us in a retreat on "Raising Godly Children". We prayed together the Akathist to the Mother of God, Nurturer of Children, then His Grace equipped us with some inspiring stories from his own childhood and some practical resources.

At another visit earlier this year, my family had the blessing of Sayedna praying the 8th Day Naming Prayers for our youngest, Simeon Nicholas.

Thanks to God things are going well here, despite me.

The Clergy, Altar Boys, and Choir prepare very rigorously to ensure that the services are celebrated with all due reverence.

We have a new ministry... a prayer network. Prayer requests of parishioners for their family and friends in critical need are given to the parish priest who sends them out to the network for prayer.

In the weekly bulletin, we have established a column "Ministry Highlights" to educate and invite parishioners into deeper service in the parish. Every week one of the 75 ministries at the church is described in a brief paragraph.

We have also been focusing on reverence, with a weekly bulletin column - refreshing ourselves about church etiquette.

Our Church School is blossoming with a new director, who is bringing new ideas like a church tour and show and tell of the holy vessels, social outings, youth choir, as well as excellent instruction.

Our teens have requested and really enjoyed reading through Revelation with an Orthodox commentary. Also, they went to Project Mexico this summer and are planning another service/mission trip this coming summer.